Effective Data Use

When used effectively, data can be a powerful tool for evidence-based decision making. Student and teacher data, if analyzed appropriately, can improve instructional practices and inform other school reforms.

Our staff have provided advice to many stakeholders—foundations, federal agencies, states, and districts—on how to use data to inform education policies and decisions. We have helped these stakeholders develop better measures of teacher and leader effectiveness that incorporate measures of students' learning, classroom observations, and other measures of performance. In addition, we are evaluating interventions designed to help teachers make use of data from formative student assessments to improve their instruction.

The Soma Umenye program, formerly known as Literacy Enhanced Across Rwanda Now (LEARN), aims to improve local language reading skills of children in the first three years of primary school. It is being implemented in all public and public-assisted primary schools in Rwanda in three phases.

In a project with the Pittsburgh Public Schools, we developed value-added statistical models that estimate teachers’ and schools’ contributions to the achievement of their students. Our findings suggest that the value-added model estimates provide meaningful information on teacher and school performance.

Mathematica is conducting an experimental impact evaluation of the effects of data-driven instruction (DDI) on student achievement. This involves the implementation of high quality DDI professional development and estimating its effects on student achievement.